Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XI 7 April 2016
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Kingdom of Epeiros, Pyrrhos AR Tetradrachm. Lokroi Epizephyrioi, 297-272 BC. Head of Zeus of Dodona left, wearing oak wreath; A below / BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΠYPPOY, Dione seated left, holding staff in right hand and lifting her veil with her left. Boston 944 (same dies); Kraay-Hirmer pl. 150, 472; Babelon, ANS Centennial Publication 1958, pl. VII, 3 (same obverse die); SNG Lockett 1650 (same obverse die); AMB 211. 16.36g, 28mm, 8h.
Very Fine. Very Rare.
Pyrrhos' limited but highly artistic coinage advertises not his reign or that of his forebears, but rather he uses the coins to promote the cults of the two principal deities of Epeiros, Zeus of Dodona and his consort Dione. As remarked by Jenkins, "it is at once apparent that in one important respect Pyrrhos' practice is closely akin to that of the Macedonian kings of this time, in that nowhere does his portrait appear. Much as we may regret this, the splendid and exuberant types of Pyrrhos' Lokrian coins go far to compensate for it. The tetradrachm has for the obverse the head of Dodonean Zeus, whose sanctuary lay in Pyrrhos' homeland; this head, crowned with oak leaves and with restless flowing hair and beard, makes a strong contrast with the restrained and classical head of the same god minted for Alexander of Epeiros at Tarentum, and even with the more concentrated style of Antigonos Doson's Poseidon, but the Pyrrhos coin is masterly in its different way. Its exciting and dynamic quality is well matched by the calm majesty of the reverse type, Dione seated on a high-backed throne and swathed in the complex drapery so typical of Hellenistic sculpture.... The impressive style of these coins is quite different from anything we might have expected at an Italian mint at this time, and it may well be that the artist responsible was not a local one, but may have come from mainland Greece or Macedonia." (G.K. Jenkins, Ancient Greek Coins [New York: Putnam, 1972], pp. 247-8.)
Very Fine. Very Rare.
Pyrrhos' limited but highly artistic coinage advertises not his reign or that of his forebears, but rather he uses the coins to promote the cults of the two principal deities of Epeiros, Zeus of Dodona and his consort Dione. As remarked by Jenkins, "it is at once apparent that in one important respect Pyrrhos' practice is closely akin to that of the Macedonian kings of this time, in that nowhere does his portrait appear. Much as we may regret this, the splendid and exuberant types of Pyrrhos' Lokrian coins go far to compensate for it. The tetradrachm has for the obverse the head of Dodonean Zeus, whose sanctuary lay in Pyrrhos' homeland; this head, crowned with oak leaves and with restless flowing hair and beard, makes a strong contrast with the restrained and classical head of the same god minted for Alexander of Epeiros at Tarentum, and even with the more concentrated style of Antigonos Doson's Poseidon, but the Pyrrhos coin is masterly in its different way. Its exciting and dynamic quality is well matched by the calm majesty of the reverse type, Dione seated on a high-backed throne and swathed in the complex drapery so typical of Hellenistic sculpture.... The impressive style of these coins is quite different from anything we might have expected at an Italian mint at this time, and it may well be that the artist responsible was not a local one, but may have come from mainland Greece or Macedonia." (G.K. Jenkins, Ancient Greek Coins [New York: Putnam, 1972], pp. 247-8.)